The following terms and abbreviations are herewith defined, at least some of which are referred to within the following description of the prior art and the present invention. The reference to the “present invention” or “invention” used herein relates to exemplary embodiments and not necessarily to every embodiment that is encompassed by the appended claims.
3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project
AAA Authentication, Authorization and Accounting
APN Access Point Name
AMBR Aggregate Maximum Bit Rate
ARP Allocation and Retention Priority
BBERF Bearer Binding and Event Reporting Function
CDMA Code Division Multiple Access
DSL Digital Subscriber Line
EPC Evolved Packet Core
EPS Evolved Packet System
E-UTRAN Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network
GBR Guaranteed Bit Rate
GC Gateway Control
GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network
GPRS General Packet Radio Service
GSM Global System for Mobile Communication
GTP GPRS Tunneling Protocol
HPLMN Home Public Land Mobile Network
HSS Home Subscriber Server
IMS IP Multimedia Subsystem
IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity
IP Internet Protocol
IP-CAN IP-Connectivity Access Network
LTE Long Term Evolution
PCC Policy and Charging Control
PCEF Policy and Charging Enforcement Function
PCRF Policy and Charging Rules Function
PDG Packet Data Gateway
PDN Packet Data Network
PDP Packet Data Protocol
PGW Packet Gateway
PMIP Proxy Mobile IP
PSS Packet Switched Streaming
QoS Quality of Service
MME Mobility Management Entity
QCI QoS Class Identifier
RAN Radio Access Network
RAT Radio Access Technology
SDF Service Data Flow
SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node
S-GW Serving Gateway
SPR Subscriber Profile Repository
UE User Equipment
UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network
Referring to FIG. 1 (Prior Art), there is shown a diagram of an exemplary telecommunications network 100 with a well known architecture that is used to help describe the APN-AMBR concept which was introduced in 3GPP TS 23.401 v8.1.0 “GPRS Enhancements for E-UTRAN Access” (Release 8) March 2008 (the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein). Those skilled in the art are familiar with the architecture and functionality of this exemplary telecommunications network 100. Thus, for clarity only the PCRF 102, PDN GW 104 (which includes PCEF 106), HSS 108, MME 110, S-GW 112, subscriber's UE 114 and a few other components which happen to be relevant to the APN-AMBR concept are described in detail herein while other well known components or entities like the E-UTRAN, SGSN, GERAN, UTRAN etc. are not described in detail within this document.
As discussed in 3GPP TS 23.401, the APN-AMBR is used to limit the aggregated bit rate that can be expected to be provided across all Non-GBR bearers and across all PDN connections of the same APN. The APN-AMBR is subscription information that is stored in the HSS 108. Similar to other subscriber data, the APN-AMBR subscription data is downloaded from the HSS 108 at attach and then sent to the PDN GW 104 (PCEF 106) through the MME 110 and the S-GW 112 at IP-CAN session establishment. The PCRF 102 consequently receives the APN-AMBR subscription data over either the Gx interface or an Gxx interface (not shown) depending on whether an on-path or an off-path model applies. The PCEF 106 enforces the APN-AMBR subscription data. At a later stage, the APN-AMBR subscription data may be modified due to an external event associated with the PCRF 102 or due to a modification of the APN-AMBR is the HSS 108. The APN-AMBR procedure is currently defined for E-UTRAN, GERAN, UTRAN access to the EPC. FIG. 1 (Prior Art) shows an architecture having both an AMBR capable access (i.e., EUTRAN) and an AMBR non-capable access (i.e., 3G SGSN).
Since the AMBR concept is only defined for 3GPP access, the previously used MBR per non-GBR EPS bearer (which contains only QCI and ARP parameters) process is no longer used for AMBR capable accesses. However, a non-GBR bearer in a non-AMBR capable access, for example in a non-3GPP access or 2G/3G access, still requires the MBR for a bearer set up. This current situation is in contrast with EPC's functionality to support mobility of a terminal 114 between a variety of accesses (fixed and mobile). In particular, this current situation is problematic because as a terminal 114 moves between different accesses then the policy enforcement schemes associated with the various bit rates for that terminal 114 may need to change. For instance, a problem can occur when a terminal 114 moves between CDMA and 3GPP or pre-Rel-8 and Ret-8 networks during which the different enforcement schemes of the different accesses may adversely affect user perception and service behavior.
Plus, the current situation makes it very challenging for operators to deploy a common policy framework which can support their particular business model regardless of the terminal's access (AMBR capable access or non-AMBR capable access). Several scenarios are discussed next where a business model is restricted by the current state of the art when the operator has policies on a volume or time threshold for a subscriber 116 that need to be enforced.
First example: An operator provides 10 Mbits/s internet access for a subscriber 116 regardless of access (assuming the operator offers different kinds of access) including a volume limit of 2 Gbytes. The operator imposes a bandwidth restriction to 1 Mbits for the subscriber 116 during the rest of a calendar period when the volume limit is reached. At the end of the calendar period the volume limit is reset and the internet access subscription is restored to 10 Mbits.
Second example: An operator allows different bit rates depending on access. For a DSL access the subscriber 116 has 20 Mbit/s, while for a LTE access the subscriber 116 has a bit rate that is limited to 10 Mbit/s. However, the volume limit for the subscriber 116 is 2 GBytes per month regardless of access. When the volume limit is reached then operator imposes bandwidth restrictions to 1 Mbits/s for the subscriber 116 during the rest of a calendar period. At the end of the calendar period, then the volume limit is reset and the internet access subscription is restored to the subscribed values.
Thus, it can be seen that there are several problems associated with the current state of the art where the APN-AMBR concept is only defined for 3GPP access. In summary, these problems are as follows:
1. Currently the standard does not define enforcement of AMBR for those accesses not supporting the AMBR concept.
2. At handover for an AMBR capable access to an non-AMBR capable access the policy roles may need to be translated to access specific ones and end user perception can be affected.
3. The current standardized solution does not support control of AMBR for business models like the ones that where described in the aforementioned two examples.
Note: The terms “AMBR” and “APN-AMBR” are used interchangeably in this document.
Accordingly, there has been and is still a need to address the shortcomings associated with the defining of the APN-AMBR concept for only 3GPP access. This need and other needed are addressed by the present invention.